HMY ''Royal Caroline'' was a

ship-rigged A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three s ...

royal yacht A royal yacht is a ship used by a monarch or a royal family. If the monarch is an emperor the proper term is imperial yacht. Most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head. The royal yacht is most often c ...

. She was ordered in 1749 to replace HMY ''Carolina'' as Britain's principal

. She was built at

Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events a ...

under the supervision of Master Shipwright John Hollond to a design by

Surveyor of the Navy The Surveyor of the Navy also known as Department of the Surveyor of the Navy and originally known as Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy was a former principal commissioner and member of both the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 15 ...

Joseph Allin Joseph Allin was an 18th century shipbuilder to the Royal Navy. His works merge with those of his namesake son who was also a Master Shipwright at Portsmouth Dockyard and later Surveyor to the Navy at which point he became Sir Joseph Allin. Jo ...

. She was launched on 29 January 1750 and was broken up 70 years later, in 1820.

Service

''Royal Caroline'' was first commissioned under Captain Sir Charles Molloy, who commanded her until 1753. Captain Sir Piercy Brett took over in 1754, and in August 1761 she became the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of Admiral of the Fleet

Lord Anson Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, (23 April 1697 – 6 June 1762) was a Royal Navy officer. Anson served as a junior officer during the War of the Spanish Succession and then saw active service against Spain at the Batt ...

, with Captain

Peter Denis Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Denis, 1st Baronet (1713 – 11 June 1778) was an English Royal Navy, naval officer and Member of Parliament. Life The son of a Huguenot refugee, Denis was educated at The King's School, Chester and joined the navy as a y ...

as his

flag-captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First ...

. Anson had orders to convey Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

to marry

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. Accompanying the yacht, renamed HMY ''Royal Charlotte'' in honour of the occasion, was a squadron of warships and four other royal yachts, HMY ''Mary'', ''Katherine'', ''Augusta'' and ''Fubbs''. During the return voyage the squadron was three times blown over to the Norwegian coast by westerly gales and took ten days to reach

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

, which it did on 6 September 1761. ''Royal Charlotte'' was commissioned under Peter Denis in December 1763, and remained under his command until 1770. Denis was succeeded by Captain John Campbell that year, and Campbell remained in command until his promotion to

rear-admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarded ...

in 1777. ''Royal Charlotte'' was recommissioned under Captain

William Cornwallis Admiral of the Red Sir William Cornwallis, (10 February 17445 July 1819) was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a n ...

in March 1783, and he was succeeded in turn by Captain Sir Hyde Parker in 1788. The yacht was briefly recommissioned in December 1792, but was paid off the following year.

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

She continued to be used for official occasions during the

French Revolutionary The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

and

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, with King George III making frequent trips in his yachts to welcome returning fleets and to conduct

fleet review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

s. The King embarked on ''Royal Charlotte'' in 1797 to visit the fleet at the

Nore The Nore is a long bank of sand and silt running along the south-centre of the final narrowing of the Thames Estuary, England. Its south-west is the very narrow Nore Sand. Just short of the Nore's easternmost point where it fades into the cha ...

after the

Battle of Camperdown The Battle of Camperdown (known in Dutch as the ''Zeeslag bij Kamperduin'') was a major naval action fought on 11 October 1797, between the British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Batavian Navy (Dutch) fleet under Vice-Admiral ...

, in order to honour Admiral Adam Duncan. Contrary winds however prevented the ship from reaching the mouth of the Thames, and instead the King was blown back up river to

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

. ''Royal Charlotte'' recommissioned again in May 1801 under Captain Sir Harry Neale, though by February 1804 Captain

George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Go ...

was in command. Grey was succeeded later in 1804 by Captain George Henry Towry, and he in turn in 1805 by Captain

Edward Foote Vice-Admiral Sir Edward James Foote, KCB (20 April 1767 – 23 May 1833) was a prominent Royal Navy officer during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He served on a number of ships and at several actions, but is best known ...

. By this time ''Royal Charlotte'' had been succeeded as the principal royal yacht by the introduction of the slightly larger HMY ''Royal Sovereign'' in 1804. Captain Foote commanded the yacht until 1812, when Captain Thomas Eyles took over command, and in June 1814 Captain George Scott became her commander. ''Royal Charlotte'' continued in service until July 1820, when she was finally broken up.

Notes

References

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External links

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"Princess Charlotte Arriving at Harwich, September 1761"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Caroline, HMY Royal Yachts of the United Kingdom 1750 ships Ships built in Deptford